Pensioners who work are far more likely to be self-employed than those of
working age, official figures show.

Almost a third of working pensioners are self-employed, whereas self-employment accounted for only 13.5pc of the rest of the workforce, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Among working pensioners, men outnumbered women for the first time. The ONS said 12.2pc of male pensioners were still working, compared with 11.6pc of women. It said this "may be due to the gradually increasing state pension age of women" but that "other factors might also be involved".

The age at which women can take their state pension has already risen to 61 and will reach 65 in the next couple of years, after which it will rise again for both sexes.

Male pensioners who were still working tended to have more senior roles than their female counterparts, the research indicated. "Men and women also carry out different types of work after reaching their state pension age," the ONS report said.

"For men, the most common jobs include managers, directors and senior officials; professional occupations; and the skilled trades. For women, the most common jobs were elementary occupations, such as cleaners, administrative positions and work within the professional occupations."

Employment status of older workers, April - June 2012 (UK, %) SPA = State Pension Age

Source: Labour Force Survey - Office for National Statistics

Craig Palfrey of Penguin Wealth, a financial advisory firm, said: "There are a number of reasons why more self-employed people are working beyond the state pension age. Many self-employed people will not have had access to a company pension scheme and so have failed to put enough aside; others have banked on the sale of their company being their pension but this never materialised. It's always a high-risk strategy but too many company directors rely on this.

"But in many cases it's because newly retired people simply get bored. Having worked full time all their lives in an employed role, and formally retired, they then take up self-employed consultancy work, which is often remote. The internet has certainly made it far easier for people to work from home and supplement their retirement incomes."

On the reasons for men outnumbering women among working pensioners, he said: "We can only speculate about the reasons, but improved health and longevity, coupled with the growth in home working and consultancy, may have started to feed into this. The employment landscape is changing rapidly and this is enabling more people to work longer in a way that suits their lifestyles.

"What is clear is that more people, both women and men, are working longer and retiring later. There are many reasons for this, such as a failure to put enough aside, but the main issue is that too few people plan in advance."